A court in Telemark County sentenced a former police officer to three years in prison on Monday, for leaving a woman in a “helpless situation” on the Brevik Bridge south of Porsgrunn late one summer night last year. She was found dead in the waters below the next day, in a case where it’s still unclear whether she committed suicide or was pushed. The police officer filed an immediate appeal.
The former cop, a friend of the woman’s family, had first been charged for making false statements to police investigating her death in August last year. He was later charged with murder, after local police believed he either threw or pushed the woman off the bridge. Video from a security camera had captured him walking with the woman on the bridge shortly before she plunged to her death.
The defendant, still on the police force at the time, claims he witnessed her suicide. He was dismissed by the Telemark Police District in January, however, and Monday’s sentence ruled that he had “an extra duty” to help the woman because he was a police officer.
His defense attorney said he reacted with shock and disbelief to his sentence and will continue to work to clear his name. He will fight to be believed, his attorney said, which is something the court in Telemark didn’t do. His sentence was in line with what prosecutors had requested.
newsinenglish.no staff
